RaveDAO has rejected allegations that it played a part in the dramatic spike and subsequent crash of the RAVE token, while major exchanges review unusual trading activity amid claims of market manipulation.
In a post on X, the project said it was not involved in or responsible for the recent price swings after RAVE surged from about $0.25 to nearly $28 in a matter of days and then plunged by more than 80%.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT publicly alleged the movement was a coordinated pump-and-dump, highlighting highly concentrated token holdings and questionable transfer patterns to exchanges. He suggested that insiders could control a very large share of the supply—claiming more than 90% in some analyses—and urged exchanges to investigate.
Binance and Bitget confirmed they are examining the situation. Binance CEO Richard Teng said the company was looking into the matter, while Bitget CEO Gracy Chen said the exchange had begun an investigation into RAVE trading activity.
RaveDAO said it plans to sell portions of unlocked tokens to finance operations, marketing and hiring. The team added it is considering mechanisms such as price-triggered or performance-triggered locks to better align incentives and pledged to pursue growth sustainably and transparently.
RaveDAO describes itself as a Web3 entertainment project combining electronic music events with blockchain tools. The project aims to onboard users via real-world festivals and parties, distribute NFTs to attendees, and use the RAVE token for governance, ticketing and event access.
According to CoinMarketCap data cited at the time, RAVE was trading around $1.36, reflecting a roughly 95% drop over the prior 24 hours.
Separately, Cointelegraph reported a surge in DeFi exploits in April: more than a dozen protocols and crypto firms were attacked in just over two weeks, beginning with the $280 million breach of Drift Protocol on April 1. Other affected projects included CoW Swap, Hyperbridge, Bybit, Silo Finance, Aethir and Rhea Finance, with incidents attributed to smart contract bugs, oracle manipulation, access control failures and liquidity pool exploits.
Cointelegraph states it follows an editorial policy committed to independent, transparent reporting and encourages readers to verify information independently.